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Duane Michals: This Photograph is my Proof
This photograph shows a couple in an embrace on a bed and even without the accompanying text, there is a warm to the image.
The caption uses the past tense and suggests it was written a good while after the image was taken. The sentence structure also suggests that the photograph was taken mid-relationship, not in the new flush or its dying embers, and that the relationship is over and it was the female who initiated the break-up.
Does the image project what the caption suggests? Yes, because the text exists. Without the text the photograph is ambiguous, to me, it shows a couple holiday, perhaps pre-marriage. The picture is taken by a 3rd party, (a friend perhaps?) and reminds me of old family photos taken when my parents took a holiday to Cornwall with friends just before they were married.
Is the photograph his proof? Yes, it is HIS proof but not a definite proof to all viewers. It is the subjective proof of the caption writer.
This is an interesting situation because the photograph and the caption are inseparable and together are great than the sum of the individual parts.
References
Dcmooregallery.com. (n.d.). Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals – Museum Exhibitions – DC Moore Gallery. [online] Available at: http://www.dcmooregallery.com/museum-exhibitions/storyteller-the-photographs-of-duane-michals [Accessed 27 Jul. 2018].